Wow, that was very brave of you to do, and I'm sure I speak for us all, when I say we accept you man!!!
A lot of the national college football personalities are buying the ND company line, suggesting that Swarbick would not have been so forceful if he didn't know exactly what had happened. Giving all parties the benefit of the doubt, and presuming that Te'o was the victim of an elaborate, multiple year long hoax that apparently had no purpose, I still have serious questions abut Manti Te'o and his mental state/capacity. It's one thing to have a "friend" online youve never met. I know most of us on this forum have never met, and probably never will, but we are "firends" in a way. But Te'o's relationship with this "girl" went far beyond that. He not only believed she was real, but had created an elaborate fantasy world where they had met at Stanford in this incredible, right out of a movie way. He essentially was playing the role of a main charchter in a sappy romantic film. There is something seriously wrong with this guy beyond just being gullible.
I really think he was duped then he made up meeting her to save face, why would he save face? Because he's a stud football player who could bang any girl he wanted, yet he's in a sexless relationship where he hasn't even touched her. No he makes up lies about meeting her and being with her while at the same time he thinks she is real.
I think this is it. I believe he was duped, and all the stories of him talking to her and meeting her were a cover-up to save embarrassment of having an online girlfriend.
yeah I'm wondering if thats the case as well. That makes the moral of this story: Just look at porn online. Nothing else.
Kekua and Tuiasasopu. Tuiasasopu and Kekua. What the ... that's it! Kekua is Tuiasasopu. Tuiasasopu is Kekua. Kekua is a MAN! Oh my god, Kekua is a man! (gags, vomits, brushes teeth, plunges face, vomits again, burns clothes and takes cold shower of shame while crying) Do we need Dan Marino to spy on Ronaiah Tuiasasopu to verify the tuckback?
The thing I absolutely love from this whole thing is how Te'o (allegedly) ran with this and the media ate this up like morning Cheerios. Nobody bothered doing even a modicum of fact checking. Meanwhile, Deadspin, who stuffy media elites love to paint as a bunch of bloggers living in their moms basement with no journalism degree actually came out with a great piece of investigative journalism while major outlets like ESPN, NBC & SI all have egg on their face.
I agree 100% Makes sense for Te'o to tell his family he is going to visit "her". That leaves him with an out. The dad never said "He" saw her, just that his son would go visit her when they were both in Hawaii. The same thing my wife and I said. It would be great if he came out now. I think his draft stock would drop, but he would still get picked. After a year or two, other players would then come out.
I just love how the whole thing is bringing out our inner gossip queen. We're all sitting here with popcorn listening raptly to the new developments like a 17 year old girl listening to her friends' prom night indiscretions. But let's not pretend we're scribbling in our scouting notebooks and thinking this whole thing matters one lick about his coming NFL career. The only elusive tight ends that he can't keep up with that I care about are the ones on the football field.
Girlfriend? You know how expensive it was to hire all those crisis actors for my wedding? A little credit, please.
***WARNING*** Some possible NSFW language in there, so be wary if you work a place that strictly monitors such things. http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2013/01/jeff-ireland-meets-with-manti-teo.html I love KSK so damn much
I don't know about this. With millions of dollars on the line it's pretty much a given that NFL teams would rather avoid uncertainty when making these big decisions. If it were more of a reasonable issue then maybe no big deal, but this story is just flat out bizarre. I think that it might make a few teams shy away from him, as they wonder what's going on in Teo's head as per this ludicrous story. At first glance, after reading the Deadspin article, you have to wonder how deep this kid's mental issues go.
Everyone says "with millions of dollars on the line" as if it means something. Is this going to affect his NFL career or not? Is he going to be a bad pro football player because of this or not? And here's another serious, honest question for you. And I'm being honest. Since when does mental stability make someone a better NFL linebacker?
CK....Do you think he drops out of the top 10 (if you had him there) or the 1st round because of this story? What if he comes out of the closet? Does he drop then? And how far. I think a team with a strong Head Coach would still draft him because of his skills. I personally think he would still go in the 1st round (not top 10) with his "I was duped" story.
..... and this is peanuts compared to Mike Vick's past situation. Besides, Te'o is still the kid who rushed the court with all the other ND fans after their basketball team beat Kentucky.
If mental instability leads to depression, alcoholism jail, suicide, murder or some other such mess, then a lot. The point is not to necessarily jump to extreme conclusions regarding Te'o but to wonder, based on a truly bizarre story and turn of events, where is this kid's head at? What kind of person and what state of mind engage in something as truly weird and distasteful as this? Would it be less or more bizarre if his fake internet girlfriend was actually a blowup doll in the closet? I would think that character still does count in player evaluation btw. Look at Rey Maluaaga, I'd guess that his draft stock took a bit of a hit because of some of his issues. Again, if this were more of a normal type story then bfd. This is some weird shiznit. He already has this to deal with, sans the bizarro story: "We noted before the Alabama game that Te’o was widely regarded as a first-round draft pick, but there were questions about his speed in pass coverage. If the Alabama game has raised further questions about how good he is against the run, then Te’o may end up falling further than most people expect. Even if he still looks like a first-round pick." http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...-first-round-pick-but-alabama-game-will-hurt/
Teo, Manti 6'2", 250lbs Linebacker Norte Dame Pros: high football IQ, excellent tackler, and always around the ball. Cons: doesn't shed blocks well, makes up fake dead girlfriends, and possibly undersized.
The Alabama game alone may have dropped him out of the top 10. If it induced even just one team to grade him the slightest bit lower than another guy to where they'll both be available and they'll now choose the other guy, that can drop a guy 5+ spots in the Draft because everyone's dirty little secret in the NFL is that they do indeed pick for need. I think he'll definitely go 1st round. I think this story gets forgotten less than a month after the NFL Draft. And by the time we reach the NFL Draft, it'll be so played out people are sick of hearing about it and they'll agree that it doesn't matter.
I think the worries of "coming out of the closet" and player apprehension about having an openly gay teammate (namely in the locker room) is dramatic and unnecessary. Firstly, most likely every NFL player has shared a locker room with a gay guy w/o realizing it and left with his backdoor virginity still intact. Secondly, your teammates are your brothers; you go into battle with them; I would think that'd have to affect how you look at them <if you're gay>. I can only estimate that a gay player would have enough respect for his teammates that he wouldn't want to view them as sexual objects just as the Texas State Fighting Armadillos didn't with Kathy Ireland. Call me crazy but I think having a gay teammate could help unify a team and have them rally around him once they witness any persecution he faces. Watch an opposing player cross the line with derogatory gay comments during a game and see how fast it ignites the players around their gay teammate. That could make the homosexual "issue" disappear real fast.
No kidding. Or Ray Lewis, who was charged by prosecutors with murder of two people in Atlanta. His charges were reduced based on his giving testimony against his two friends, who were acquitted anyway, but he still paid million dollar civil suit settlements to the families. Ray Lewis and two buddies get into a fight with two other guys, who end up stabbed and dead, Lewis goes speeding off in a limo and tells all his friends in the limo they need to keep quiet about all this, the white suit Lewis is wearing that night is never found and prosecutors maintain it was thrown by Lewis in the dumpster of a fast food joint. He was caught lying to police in his statement when they brought him in. All sounds pretty bad right? This is, after all, MURDER. Two actual non-fictitious people DEAD. Hall of Fame. Lauded each and every week for what an incredible leader he is.
I honestly believe there is a lot of homophobia in the NFL and in all levels of football, but that it isn't a huge deal. I think there have been a number of gay players that are pretty open about it, but just not public...there's a difference between "open" and "public". I know at least one such player on a major FBS school that has started games at his position and I don't think he makes much of an effort to hide that he's gay. He's so big and strong I don't think anyone is about to try and bully him about it anyway, lol. But either way I think point being the teammates that are curious and that want to know, probably know, and the ones that don't want to know, keep their eyes and ears closed...and the bad sentiment among them (which I'm SURE exists), is just not very overt, and so it doesn't matter that much. I don't think it would be a rallying point nor do I think it would be a crisis. But I do think that the NFL will be forced to come to grips with some of their own homophobic demons when a certain Heisman winner finally reaches them.
...... and at what point did Ray become devoutly religious? Wasn't it after the murders? Something was eating at his conscious. Usually there's a correlation between how bad or troubled the person previously was to how devoutly religious they become. It's like they subconsciously feel a need to balance it out. I could see Lewis believing the only way to squash or minimize his feeling of guilt is to spend his life trying to make amends in exchange for falsely being acquitted.
So with the new information that has come out it seems he lied about everything about her but played it up for the cameras. Only Ray Lewis is one of the all-time greats. One could argue Lewis became a better person for what he did.
<scurrying through USF's roster looking for the biggest baddest player> lol. I'd think any gay issues would be squashed the moment his teammates realize he can play ball, play hard, and help the team win. I disagree about the rallying point thing though. I'm not saying it would be the case every time but there are scenarios where it would arise IMO. It'd be similar to how white players rallied around and supported their black teammates when integration began (like in "Remember the Titans").
I don't know about any of that. I just know that in kind of a demented way, the MURDERS actually may have helped ADD to Ray Lewis' legacy. Because everyone out there is talking like he's just so innocent of all of it and was caught in a bad situation, and how it changed him as a person and made him a better football player, a better leader and a better man. I mean who knows. Sometime down the road if Manti is ever recounting this whole episode (which is doubtful to me as I truly believe it'll be forgotten about quickly after the Draft), he'll be talking about lessons he learned from it about guarding yourself against people that will try and use your fame, lessons about embellishing or getting carried away with something that you yourself had started to know wasn't true, how it made him a better person, etc. Suddenly he's an even better leader now than he was before the news broke.
The amount to which the players "rally" would be directly correlated with the amount of fire that the player in question starts to take for being gay. We live in a pretty PC world nowadays. Junior Seau was castigated for using the word "***" once at an award banquet. I believe it was LenDale White who was strongly rebuked by pretty much every journalist everywhere when he spoke up at the rookie symposium and asked a question about "****". That kind of stuff is stomped on pretty harshly nowadays. And because of that, if a player makes his homosexuality public and not just open, you'll see the press celebrate him, which gives the players pretty much no reason whatsoever to "rally" around him.
Which is exactly the point. In a sick way, the murder of two people in Atlanta only added to Ray Lewis' legacy. And yet I'm supposed to believe these fake girlfriend shenanigans are going to make Manti Te'o a worse professional football player.
